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THE NATIONAL DEFENSE. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON.WM.SULZER, 



OF NEW YORK. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Tuesday, March 8, 1898. 



■WASHINGTON. 
1898. 



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G8629 

\^ SPEECH 



.^ON. WILLIAM SULZET^. 



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The House having under consideration the bill (H. R. 8927) making a])pro- 
pi-iations to supply urgent deficiencies in the appropriations for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1898, and for prior years, and for other purposes- 
Mr. SULZER said: 

Mr. Speaker: This is a time for the exhibition of the greatest 
degree of patriotism and for the exemplification of the smallest 
degree of partisanship. This is the time for action and not for 
talk. This is the time for unity, for harmony, and for us ail to 
■stand together shoulder to shoulder for the safety and the great- 
ness of the Republic, for the grandeur and the glory of the flag, 
and for the vindication of American honor and American states- 
manship. 

Imbued with this spirit, and not unconscious of the gravity of 
the threatening situation which to-day confronts the whole coun- 
try. I heartily approve this emergency measure, and as a Jeffer- 
sonian Democrat I shall gladly vote for it, and hope it will pass 
this House withoiit a dissenting vote and by a unanimous voice. 
In a time like this there should be no parties and no party poli- 
tics. We should all be patriots, and act with a singleness of pur- 
pose for the best interest of all the people and for the gi'eatness 
and glory of the Republic. 

For these reasons I am heartily in favor of this bill, and for the 
same reasons I voted for and advocated the bill which passed this 
House yesterday adding two more artillery regiments to the Regu- 
lar Army, in order that the guns on our coast fortifications may 
be intelligently and eflBciently manned by patriotic and expe- 
rienced soldiers. It has been said in some of the newspapers »f 
the country that I was opposed to the artillery bill and that I 

objected to its early consideration. 

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That is false in every pailicular. On the contrary, I voted for 
a favorable report of the bill in the Committee on Military Affairs, 
of which I am a member, and, as the Conoressional Record 
shows, subsequently did all that I could on the floor of the House 
to aid the chairman of that committee to secure unanimous con- 
sent for its immediate and early consideration. The objection to 
that request came from another member of this House. I make 
it a rule to seldom refute a newspaper error concerning my official 
action, because I know that a lie travels faster than the truth and 
newspapers dislike to admit or correct mistakes. But in this mat- 
ter I am deeply interested and appeal to the Record as to the 
correctness of the statements I now make, and will not have my 
motives or actions misconstrued or misunderstood by any maai or 
any newspaper. 

Mr. Speaker, as is well known, no member of this House has 
more persistently and consistently for the past three years advo- 
cated and championed Cuban freedom and Cuban independence. 
It is now a matter of great personal gratification to me that at 
last we are alive to the gravity of the situation and that Congress 
is about to do something and take decisive action. 

It should have done so long ago. 

In my judgment we should have recognized the independence 
of Cuba or granted her patriotic sons belligerent rights long ere 
this. We have waited too long. We have delayed too much. If 
we had taken decisive action, as we should have done, a year or 
two years ago, this crisis would have been averted and Cuba 
would to-day be free and independent and in her proper place 
among the proud nations of the world. 

All my sympathies are now and always have been with the 
heroic and struggling Cuban patriots. I want to see them win 
tbeir independence and secure the blessings of self-government. 

Whether this measure means peace or war, I hope and I sin- 
cerely believe it means the freedom of Cuba. We do not want 
peace at any price. We want peace with honor, and there can be 
no peace with honor if this great Republic ccmtdnues to permit 
the wanton butchery, the horrible brutality, the blood-curdling 
assassination, and the willful extermination of innocent men, 

women, and children to go on in Cuba. We do not want war; 
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neither do we fear war. If war is inevitable, if war conies, it will 
not be our fault. It will come, if it comes at all, because Spain 
seeks it and demands it to bolster up her decayed and tottering 
throne, threatened by revolution at home, and to distract the 
attention of the civilized world from her inhuman practices and 
frightful barbarities under the guise of war in Cuba. I heartily 
favor this bill and hope it means the beginning of the end of poor 
Cuba's woes and trials and troubles, and her early freedom and 
independence. Cuba is lost to Spain forever, and Spain knows it. 
The quicker Spain admits it, the better for Spain and Spanish 
bondholders. 

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion permit me to say, as a member of 
this House representing as loyal and as patriotic a constituency 
as exists to-day in the country, that no one will do more, that no 
one will go farther than I will, now or hereafter, to do all in my 
power to promote the national defense, uphold and maintain the 
national honor, and support and strengthen the hands of the Presi- 
dent to speedily bring about what every liberty-loving American 
citizen wants to see — the freedom and the independence of Cuba. 
Pjoud applause.] 

[Here the hammer fell.] 
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